I respect the heck out of Brendan Shanahan and know he has a thankless job. He is, as they say where I come from, wicked smart (smaht).
But I’m sorry, what happened to Milan Hejduk from Columbus Blue Jackets forward Derek MacKenzie on Sunday and the zero consequences he paid for it? It makes even me mad, the guy who is supposed to be objective and play no favorites for the team I cover.

How the bleep does Derek McKenzie not only not get suspended for the following hit on Hejduk that happened in Sunday’s game with the Blue Jackets, but not even a two-minute penalty?

Done seeing that video of the hit? Uh, McKenzie did a Lambeau Leap into Hejduk. He got more air than Michael Jordan on that hit. How the bleep does MacKenzie not get a penalty on that?????????????? Did MacKenzie fail to jump literally out of Nationwide Arena, is that why he didn’t get a penalty?

Honestly, what a joke this is. By all accounts, Derek MacKenzie is a nice guy, with a reputation as a tough but honest player. That’s great, but this is one of the biggest no-brainer penalties I’ve EVER seen in my years covering hockey, and yet MacKenzie got nothing. Nothing from referees Paul (March 26, 1997, no game-misconduct for Darren McCarty for an obvious instigator on Claude Lemieux) and Tim Peel, and nothing from the NHL department of player safety, headed up by former Red Wing Shanahan.

Why do I bring up the fact that Shanahan was a former Red Wing, and part of the most vicious rivalry in recent NHL history, the celebrated Avs-Wings “Blood Feud” rivalry? Well, normally I never would. But I gotta tell ya, the Avalanche front office and many, many of its fans are convinced the NHL gives them unfavorable treatment, just because not many around the league don’t like the Avalanche. Normally I’d laugh off any conspiracy theory like that, but doing nothing about ridiculously obvious penalties like MacKenzie’s doesn’t stop the conspiracy theorists at all, and only makes me perk my ears up a little more that maybe, just maybe, there is something to it.

I always said that Peter Forsberg was the victim of an absolute joke of a double standard as a player. He took more cheap shots than any player of the recent age, yet very, very few of them were ever penalized by major penalties and/or suspensions. Joe Sakic – JOE FREAKIN’ SAKIC – was once SUSPENDED for a PLAYOFF game by former NHL discipline czar Brian Burke for a completely innocent collision with Detroit’s Kris Draper in 1998. Sakic was trying to GET OUT OF THE WAY of Draper when they collided at center ice, and Sakic gets a one-game suspension for Game 1 of the first round against Edmonton. The Avs lost that one game and lost the series in seven games. That remains the worst disciplinary decision I’ve ever seen in my years covering this game. Call me an Avs homer all you want, I don’t care. It was and remains a joke.

We’ve seen Gabe Landeskog get crushed with a hit this year that resulted in no suspension, but I actually thought it was a good hockey hit. Tough, yes, maybe Stuart left his feet too much, yes, but Landy had his head down at the blue line and that’s what happens when you do.

But here is Milan Hejudk, a clean, gentlemanly player, a true credit to the sport, getting crushed by a Lambeau Leap from a stiff player on the worst team in the league and there’s no call. Hejduk tonight will miss his second straight game because of that hit. He’s out with a torso injury. He left the ice after the hit, but toughed it out to play the rest of that game Sunday. But he was playing hurt, and then the injury worsened. Now, the Avs are without a former Rocket Richard Trophy winner, a key part of their team still, while Derek MacKenzie gets to go on his merry way and play for Columbus.

The NHL department of player safety apparently thinks nothing of this whole thing.

Nice work, Paul Devorski, Tim Peel and Brendan Shanahan. You’re not at all feeding the conspiracy theorists that the league has it in for the Avs.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.